Ishall detain you no longer than to give you some Account of our Prince’s private Deportment. He rises every Day at Five o’Clock in the Morning, even in the coldest Winter Months; and first, he performs his Devotion to God, then he goes to the Council to consult of Matters tending to the Public Good, ’till Dinner-time; he follows the same Course in the Afternoon, till Supper-time; I mean the Time of his Counsellors Supper, not his own: he never sups, he eats but once a Day, and that sparingly too; and is as abstemious in Drinking; he closes his Dinner with a double Glass of Wine: He passes the Night chastly, ever since the Loss of his Royal Consort: He cannot endure the trifling Amusements which many are taken with, and will have nothing to do with Jesters, Jugglers, Buffoons, Parasites, the common Delights, and yet Plagues, of Courts. He hates Idleness, is a very great Husband of his Time; if he has any to spare from public Business, which but rarely happens, he spends it in Conferences with good and learned Men, who (as I told you before) are his chief Delight, and usual Attendants whilst he is at Dinner. I believe that several of the Commons would not change their Life for his, ’tis so thrifty and severe: What Man is there that does not set apart some small Portion of his Time to indulge himself? Who would willingly deprive himself of all Delights? To whom would it not seem irksom to grow old in perpetual Care and Business. This looks more like Servitude than Sovereignty: But our Prince is of another Mind; neither doth he dissemble it in his ordinary Discourse: He says, he was advanced to so great an Office by God, not for his own Sake; that the Reins of Government were not put intohis Hands, to wallow in Pleasures and Delights: The case of Succession in Kingdoms and Empires differs from the Condition of private Inheritances; in these latter, no Man is denied to indulge himself in the Conveniencies of his Patrimony. But so many Nations are intrusted to him by God, that he might have the Care and Labour, and they the Benefit of his Care, so as to obtain Rest and Quiet by his Sweat.
InHunting only he spends a little Time, not so much for Pleasure, as for Health; for when he finds his Body fall away, and his Spirits flag by continual sitting for many Days together, he chooses one Day to refresh himself with the freer Air in the open Field; and in Summer very early in the Morning, and in Winter some Hours before Sun-rising, what Weather soever it be, he goes Abroad to Hunting, and sometimes he does so in the Afternoon; for I remember when I attended him at Dinner, I heard him say,I have done my Duty this Day; I have dispatched all Business that are on the File; I may now spend the rest of the Day for the Health of my Body. Thus he returns late at Night from the Death of a Boar, Stag, or Bear, and betakes his wearied Limbs to rest, without Eating or Drinking. Let no Man then upbraid us with the want ofTrajans,Varus’s, andTheodosius’s; those Miracles of the Ancients in our Days: I dare take my Oath, that there is more true Vertue in our Emperor, than there was in all of them put together. But the Admiration of so great a Man transports me: ’Tis not my Design to speak of his Merits, they would make up a Volume rather than an Epistle; besides, they require an Ingenuity far exceeding mine; and, therefore, my Aim was only to give you some Hints,That you may know what a Master I serv’d. I close all with this public Prayer,That he may returnlate to Heaven, whose vertuous and holy Presence alleviates the Miseries of our Age.
Asto theGreek Bookswhich you enquire after, and the Rarities, and the wild Beasts of a strange Kind, which you hear I have brought back, they are hardly worth mentioning: Among them, there is oneIchneumonvery gentle, which is known for its deadly Quarrels with theCrocodileand theAsp. I had also aWeeselof that kind they call anErmine, very beautiful; but I lost it on the Way. I have many brave Horses, such as no Man ever brought from thence before, and six She-Camels. I brought back no Shrubs nor Herbs, but in Painting, which I left to the Care ofMatthiolus, with some other Things, many Years ago. I sent him Tapestry and Linnen after theBabylonianFashion, with Swords, Bows, and other Trappings: I have also many other Things made of Horses-hides, curiously wrought after theTurkishFashion, or rather I may say, I had them; for in so great an Assembly of principal Men and Women atFrancfort, one beg’d one Thing, and another another; so that I have but a small Matter left. The rest of my Gifts was well bestowed; but I am very sorry that I was lavish of one Balsam, because Physicians call the Truth of it in question, as not answering all the Marks thatPlinygives of it: Whether it be that the Virtue of those ancient Plants from whence it flows, be weakned by Age, or from any other Cause; this I know for certain, that it trickles down from Shrubs in theMattarcan GardensnearCairo.
BeforeI leftConstantinople, I sent oneAlbacarus, aSpanish Physician, intoLemnos, on the sixth Day ofAugust, to be present at the digging out that famous Earth, desiring him to write me the Certainty of its Place, Origin, manner of Extracting and Use; which I know he will do, ifhe is not hindered. I had a Mind to go thither my self to be an Eye-witness of it; but, theTurksnot giving me leave, I deputed him in my Stead. I have brought back also abundance of old Coins, the chief of which I shall present my Master with. Besides, I have whole Waggon-loads, if not Ship-loads, ofGreek Manuscripts, and about 240 Books, which I sent by Sea toVenice, from thence to be carried toVienna: I design them forCæsar’s Library; there are many of them common, but some choice; I rummaged every Corner to procure such Kind of Merchandize, as my last gleaning.
Ileft one very old Manuscript behind me atConstantinople, all very well written in large Characters; it wasDiascorides, with the Figures of Plants, wherein there were some few Things ofCrativa, and the Book of Birds; ’tis in the Possession of aJew, the Son ofHammon, who in his Life-time wasSolyman’s Physician: I desir’d to buy it, but the Price frightned me; he rated it at 100 Ducats, a Price fit forCæsar’s Purse, not mine. However, I will not cease to pressCæsarto redeem so famous an Author from that Bondage: ’tis very much injur’d by Time, and so eaten with Worms on the out-side, that a Man would hardly take it up, if it lay in the Streets.
Butto conclude, you may expect me in a very short Time. I shall reserve what remains, till we meet: In the mean Time, do you take Care to provide some good and learned Men, by whose Conversation I may drive away the dull Thoughts remaining in my Mind, from my long Aboad among theTurks. Farewell!
FINIS.